MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has established Sainsbury’s as a major player in games, claims the supermarket. The retailer celebrated the impact of the game’s launch during its 2010 Entertainment Conference, highlighting the event as one of its most successful ventures in the past twelve months – thanks to …

Many of the video games companies rushing towards the digital markets will fail. That’s the warning from Digital River’s global gaming VP Jeff Hemenway, who is concerned by the sheer number of start-ups and major publishers looking to capitalise on free-to-play games and digital downloads. There is a goldrush, there’s …

A new UK games trade site has launched, which offers consumers three ways to buy and sell titles. GaBoom.co.uk allows users to either contact other members on the site’s forum to agree on postage terms, use GaBoom’s own escrow service or ‘Secure Swap’ feature for a safer transaction. We have …

Peripheral to include a copy of Kinect Adventures in the box

An update to the CV of a level and mission designer currently working at Microsoft Game Studios’ 343 Industries seems to suggest that work began this month on a brand new title in the lucrative Halo franchise. As spotted by CVG, the document now claims the developer in question began …

EA Sports boss Peter Moore has warned that the development world’s obsession with high Metacritic scores may leave gamers in the dark. Metacritic scores have previously been worked into the development teams’ objectives, and the hardest task fell to the FIFA crew, who were challenged by Moore to go out …

Having confirmed in March that it had entered into a publishing deal for developer 38 Studios’ mystery RPG Project Mercury”, EA has officially confirmed details of its new fantasy title. Called Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the title is an open-world RPG set in a new world created by popular author …

While the leading network firm Limelight also steps out as an shareholder

Iguana Entertainment moves shop to Middlesbrough

Outspoken US video games analyst Michael Pachter has told MCV that despite Activision’s three-pronged denial that it is intending to introduce paid-for multiplayer in its Call of Duty titles, he still believes Activision is planning some premium functionality for future titles. If they say you won’t ever HAVE to pay-to-play …